Author's note: haha do you like my title? So, I Got the idea from Independence Day, of course. And I guess firecrackers and gunpowder and stuff like that didn't exist in FE time (or else we would have seen cannons and such), but just pretend it did, alright?
The sun was just beginning to set over the now peaceful land of Crimea. Just earlier that day, Elincia was officially declared Queen at her grand coronation. Now, she was enjoying a luxurious banquet with Ike, the army, and the other nobles that attended. Many people sought her out, stopping to congratulate her or to wish her luck. So busy was Elincia, she didn't have a chance to see Ike. So when she finally had a moment to herself, she was delighted to find him not ten feet away from her, standing by one of the sparkling fountains. Ike was chatting with Ranulf. They were both chowing down on roast beef or steak.
"Hey, it's the queen!" Ranulf waved to Elincia. "Were you looking for Ike?" He teased, wagging his eyebrows.
She flushed a little, but otherwise did not answer. She kept her eyes on Ike.
"So, what do you need, pri-er, queen?" He asked.
"You've already completed your task of helping me reclaim the throne," Elincia said, avoiding the question. "You don't need to speak like you are still under my employment."
"Well, Ike is a lord for Crimea so he serves you anyway." Ranulf pointed out. A silence followed that felt very awkward to Ranulf. So changing the subject, he started with, "So... I bet you're super excited for the fireworks tonigh..." His excitement trailed off as he noticed Ike's glare.
"What? May you please say that again for me?" Elincia said.
"Er, um, sorry gotta go! Yeah, I need more buttered corn!" Ranulf quickly walked away to where the tables of food were.
Elincia turned to Ike. "You're hiding something from me, aren't you?"
Ike sighed and smiled. "You're still so sharp. Guess the cat's out of the bag," he said, glowering at the direction of where Ranulf speed walked off to. No pun intended, the queen thought. Sort of.
"You see," Ike began, staring into the new queen's eyes. "We were planning on having a surprise fireworks show to celebrate the end of the war and the beginning of your reign. But Ranulf apparently forgot that it was a surprise."
"Oh." Elincia truly was surprised. "How thoughtful of you."
"It was Tibarn's idea, actually."
"So where did you plan on getting fireworks?"
"Tibarn was going to give us the material for it, but Muston gave some to us, free of charge, even though we offered to pay for it. He said he was just glad to be able to watch your coronation, though."
"Oh, really? i havent seen him or the other merchants, actually."
"They had to leave right after the ceremony."
"Oh. I didn't get a chance to wish them farewell..." Elincia trailed off. Ike wrapped his arms around her. Changing the subject, she asked, "So, when does it start?"
"You'll see. We can't tell you everything yet. It's still supposed to be secret," Ike grinned.
At that moment, a plump noble with a monster of a mustache strolled over to Ike. "Heavens above, it is the famed General Ike! I would just like the honor of congratulating you on..."
Ike successfully tuned out the droning noble and focused his attention on food. When Ike assumed the man was done speaking, he gave him the same response he gave for the other abhorrent nobles as well. "Thank you for your support. Now we'll better be able to serve our queen and our country."
Ike internally winced slightly at his words. He did not possess the flowery speech that befitted nobles of his rank. But he didn't exactly choose this, either.
The noble didn't seem to mind his dull response. He launched into another speech that Ike paid no attention to. He figured that the repulsive pig just liked to hear his own voice. Why are other nobles so conceited? It's just sickening. But at least the Crimean nobles aren't nearly as dreadful as the ones from Begnion.
Finally, the noble bid Ike goodbye, setting off to go bother someone else. Ike went to find Soren. He hadn't gotten to talk to his friend since the final battle. Now he was eager to converse with him.
Naturally, Ike found him in a corner of the courtyard, away from the others. Soren held a small plate of plain crackers. Soren was gazing at the walls of the castle behind him.
"Hello, Soren," Ike greeted him. "I'm glad to see you eating."
Soren turned around to face him. "Good evening, commander. I-"
Hardly had their conversation began when a servant burst from a side door near the two. She immediately zeroed in on them and ran to them.
"General, the fireworks aren't working!" She cried. This got the attention of Soren and Ike.
"Why not?" Soren asked.
"We don't know! But they're not lighting up!"
"What time is it?" Ike asked her.
"About a quarter after the twenty-first hour. The show was supposed to begin now," The servant answered.
"I don't think Queen Elincia knows when it was supposed to begin, although she knows about the surprise. We can be late," Ike remarked.
Soren began thinking hard. "Okay, I have a plan. I'll need all the sages and Rhys. Ike, split up and find Rhys, Ilyana, Tormod, Calill, and Bastian. Tell them to meet up at the left side door and to bring any tomes that they have with them. When we have them all, go back to the queen and tell her the show will be late. Then we can have time to prepare."
They set off to find the magic users. In record time, they were all found and were currently milling around the door, carrying their worn tomes. Ilyana was gorging on an astronomical plate of food. Tormod and Calill, student and teacher, were chatting each other. Rhys coughed in the chilly twilight air.
"Tactician! Why do we-" Bastian started saying, but was cut off.
"I'm sure you're wondering why we are all congregated here. It's because the fireworks won't work," Soren addressed, getting straight to the point. "So here is my plan. We'll stand in the front of the castle, albeit rather far away from it. While I hate to use magic for entertainment, I propose use our own tomes to create the fireworks."
Everyone was struck silent by Soren's suggestion. Even Ilyana stopped munching on her food for a moment to stare at Soren. Then, Tormod chuckled. "Wow Soren, I didn't think you had an imagination!"
Soren briefly glared at the boy, but didn't give him much attention. So he continued, "While studying the art of magic at Mainel Cathedral," Aside from other things, Soren thought darkly. "I learned how magic reacts to each other. For instance, when light and thunder meet, often the result would be a bright explosion. Or when light meets with fire, a shower of sparks will rain down.
"Therefore, Rhys, you have the most important role: making light balls. Try to shoot them high into the air so we can easily strike it with magic. Can you do it?"
"Y-yes. I've never made my spells into balls of light, b-but I'll do my best!" Rhys replied, shivering slightly in the cold night air.
Soren nodded. "Alright. I brought wind and fire. Starting with Rhys, state the tomes you brought." Soren wasn't used to giving out orders. It felt weird. But the others nodded in agreement. Each of them reported what they brought when it got to their turn.
"Light." "Fire!" "Fire and elthunder." "Thunder." When it got to Bastian, he said in iambic pentameter, "Excuse this fellow friend for his mistake-"
"Quit your foolish talk," Soren snapped. "We all know you can speak normally. And I'm assuming you didn't bring anything with you?"
"No. I was with the queen and...Lucia." As the words dreamily came from Bastian's mouth, everyone laughed, except for Soren of course.
"We don't have the time for this," he muttered, then spoke to the others again. "Bastian, take Calill's elthunder. He and Ilyana will take alternate with shooting their spells at the light first. Then, Calill, Tormod, and I will take turns with our fire spells so that we won't run out.
"Be very careful that the thunder and fire spells alternate. The aftermath of them colliding into each other may be disastrous. Is everything understood?"
They all shouted to the affirmative. To Soren's chagrin, Tormod yelled, "Sure thing, chief!" Soren wasn't used to being the leader. He was used to Ike leading while he just made the plans. So when people (especially people whom Soren knew didn't like him) called him the leader, he was less than pleased. But for the sake of time, he didn't press the issue.
"Bastian, go see if the castle can spare us some tomes, particularly light-based ones," Soren suggested. The count complied.
"I'm going to head over to Ike and Queen Elincia and tell them we're ready. They'll push the crowd back and give us and the castle plenty of room. Remember, we'll have to stand far from the castle. Rhys, practice making your magic into a spherical shape. Everyone else prepare your magic as well," Soren commanded, and then left in search of Ike and the queen.
Soren found them away from the crowded, holding hands and murmuring to each other. When Ike saw him coming, he asked him, "Is it ready Soren?
"Yes. But as you know, fireworks can be dangerous, so I'll need you and Queen Elincia to push the crowd back so that the people has less of a chance to be burnt to a crisp." Then he made his way back to the fireworks crew. He heard Ike make an announcement to the guests to move farther back to make room for the fireworks show. Following the announcement was a loud shuffling as people backed up to make a wide space.
By now, the sun had completely set. The sky grew dark. That night, it was very dark and clear. No clouds floated in the sky, and not even the moon hung in the sky. Only a few candles in the front of the castle were lit.
Bastian and Soren returned to the group at the same time. "Now, what shall we do?" Bastian inquired, dropping the books on the ground.
"We go up and commence with the show. What else?" Soren said. They all flipped to a page in their tomes and walked up to take up the empty space. The crowd saw them and cheered. Ike and Elincia watched, waiting silently to see what would happen.
"Do we all have enough light to see?" Soren asked. In the dim light he could clearly see everyone nod. "Okay, Rhys. Start when you're ready."
Taking a deep breath, Rhys shakily mumbled the words to the spell and projected a ball of light into the air. Some garbled words from a hungry Ilyana, and thunder shot down on the suspended ball of light.
The effects were instantaneous. The spells clashed and created an explosion. Small fragments of lights flared and made a flower of fire. A slow moment later, a resounding boom could be heard by all. The fragments slowly dribbled down the sky until it simmered out, leaving behind a trail of light.
The crowd wildly cheered at the spectacle. Soren and the others smiled, satisfied that it worked. Rhys build up another light spell and launched it in the air. It went high into the sky, with a streak of light trailing the ball.
Tormod cheerily added his fire into Rhys's light. They combined, heat mixing with brightness. Rather than an explosion, it morphed into a shower of orange embers that resembled a willow tree's droopy branches. They made a crackling sound as the embers flitted down and died into harmless ash.
Rhys raised his hand for a third spell. As it shot up, Bastian chanted the words for elthunder. The three thunderbolts flashed down on the ball, nailing it dead center.
The thunder split up the condensed light, and it exploded into pieces. As they scattered in all directions, a frighteningly loud BOOM echoed through all of Melior. Then the glowing sparks fell and burned out.
Rhys panted as he released his fourth spell. As it hovered in the air, Calill launched her own fireball to meet Rhys's. Many sparks soared and traced lines of blue into the night sky. Her fire had been extra hot. Then the embers crackled into nothing.
Rhys shot up another spell. At this, his book expired. So he reached to the book stack and grabbed a new one. Ilyana muttered a thunder spell. It broke up the ball into bright flaming pieces that rivaled the twinkle of stars. Everyone stopped to admire the fire flower and the belated boom.
Rhys was getting better at making his spells into spheres. He managed to make yet another one for Soren.
Soren, using the ball of light for reading light, casted his fireball. The effect was a yellow Roman candle that made a sound like rain falling.
The spectators watched with rapt interest. The fireworks dotted the sky, shimmering as they drifted into the ground. Some made peony and chrysanthemum shapes while others were more like weeping willows or Roman candles. The sounds were entertaining as well. The children covered their ears whenever it was Bastian's turn. Not only were the fireworks interesting, so was watching the spells shoot and mix into the sky.
There was a brief break, since using all that magic really tired out the magic users. Originally, they were just going to end the show, but Soren suggested a finale that the others liked quite a bit, so they called for a brief intermission to save some of their magic reserves. The magic users rested for a few minutes and got new tomes to replace any useless ones. Soren chanted and some wind arrived to blow away the smoke from fireworks. But soon, the show began again.
Just as another thunder firework was made, it briefly illuminated the sky to reveal three bird looking creatures in the sky. They were seen frantically trying to dodge the burning embers and squawking in surprise. They were all carrying something in their talons.
Rhys coughed hard. "Are those birds Tibarn and his 'eyes' and 'ears'?"
"Yes, they are," Soren said, studying the birds. "Calill and Tormod, make some flares with your fire so they can see where we are."
The flames guided the birds to castle Crimea. The onlookers gasped when they saw who they were. Ike led Elincia up to the front to speak with them. Tibarn landed on the ground with ease while Janaff and Ulki sloppily landed with their cargo. Then they shifted into their humanoid forms.
"Hello, Lord Tibarn." Elincia stepped forward. "If I may ask, what brings you here?"
"Greetings, Queen Elincia," he stated. "I got word that you didn't have any firecrackers, so we flew to you with some. But it would seem that you're fine! We didn't see them before, so it shocked us when we almost flew into one."
"My deepest apologies," Elincia apologized. "We weren't expecting you. Soren and the other sages made them with magic."
"Is that so?" Tibarn asked, turning to Soren.
Soren's face hardened. "Yes, King Tibarn."
"So, here you go," Tibarn said, gesturing at the boxes. "Some firecrackers. We'll stay here to recover and then we'll be on our way."
"It would be an honor," Elincia replied; Ike asked, "Recover from what?"
"Oh, hello Ike. I see you've led Elincia to victory." Tibarn chuckled. Then he became serious again. "My 'eyes' and 'ears' are incapacitated as of the moment due to that firework."
They looked over to Janaff and Ulki. Both were sitting on the ground, their wings folded back. Janaff was blinking and moaning, "My eyes!" while Ulki was holding his head, murmuring, "My ears..."
"Oh dear. They'll be alright, I hope," Elincia said.
"Don't worry about it. They'll be fine by morning," Tibarn told her. Then he picked up a firecracker and tossed it to Ike. "You can use these now. Besides, those beorc look like they're about to pass out."
Rhys had exhausted himself despite their break, since he had to do six times the work of everyone else. As Tibarn had predicted, he fainted. Bastian caught his head just in time. Rhys came to a moment later, but it was obvious he was worn out and sick from the cold. Shortly after, Ilyana collapsed to the ground because of an empty stomach.
The show continued, but with actual fireworks this time. Ike and the other Greil Mercenaries were manning them. While they may not have been as dazzling as the magic-made ones, they were still beautifully shaped and displayed a wide variety of colors.
The magic users watched, finally having a chance to enjoy them. Rhys was now covered with a blanket and Ilyana was inhaling leftover bread rolls.
"So are we still doing the finale?" Tormod asked.
"If the others are up for it," Soren said. Everyone looked at Rhys.
"I can do it," he said. "But sorry...that's all I will be able to do."
"It'll be sufficient," Soren replied. "Here is the plan. Rhys will simultaneously launch two spells into the air. The fire team will aim at the right one; the thunder team will target the left one."
"Fire team, listen closely. Calill and I will aim for the top of the ball. Our fireballs will combine to make a greenish color that will spread down to the right side of the ball. Tormod, send out two small orange fireballs for Queen Elincia's eyes.
"Thunder team, try to have the thunder go sideways across the top of the ball. Send out a blue one for Ike's hair and another one below it for his headband."
"Soren...we can't make green thunder," Ilyana pointed out in a weak voice, though she could barely be heard over a particularly loud boom.
"If you make it go very fast, it will change color," Soren said with such certainty that no one dared argue with him, even if none of them had ever heard of a such thing.
A barrage of fireworks appeared above them suddenly, signaling an end to the fireworks. Many loud popping sounds emitted from them.
"I'll run over and tell General Ike that we'll stage the finale," Calill volunteered, and left. The others prepared themselves.
Shortly after Calill came back, the fireworks ended. The sages smiled. And on cue, Rhys released two light balls into the sky.
"One...two...three," Soren hissed and he and Calill both released their fires on the top of the right ball. Calill's blue fire and Soren's yellow fire combined to make a green the exact shade of Elincia's hair. It mixed with some of the light and started running down the ball like wet paint. Tormod quickly made the Queen's eyes.
Meanwhile, Bastian's elthunder took care of Ike's hair. Ilyana slurred the words to the spell and shouted them as fast as she could. The thunder zoomed across the ball at the speed of sound. And sure enough, it turned green. Calill supplied the eyes with two balls of blue fire.
Rather than exploding like normal fireworks, the faces of Ike and Elincia hung in the sky for a long while. Finally, the magic ran out and simply faded out. At this, everyone went wild and started chanting "Long live the Hero of Crimea!" and "Long live Queen Elincia!"
Every year, on that night, the Greil Mercenaries were hired to make fireworks for the anniversary. They were paid quite a bit for it, even if it was just Rhys and Soren doing it.
It also set a precedent for future coronations. From then on, mages and bishops were specifically trained to make faces out of fireworks for coronations. Its class was called Elincian Mages, in honor of the first Queen it was done for.